The South Westmorland Railway is going to be my project for quite some time, as we progress from the early planning stages and research. There is a ‘studio’ in our garden in the Perth Hills, that is approx. 12’ x 20’ and the wife is quite happy for me to use all this space, though it might be a bit ambitious to think that I as a beginner to these things, would utilise it all.

It will be set in around 1960, when I lived near Oxenholme Station, and Cumbria was called Westmorland. I emigrated to Australia in 1974, so its very much a case of rekindling memory. There will be features of that area, between the Lake District and the Howgill Fells to the east. Oxenholme of course is on the Euston to Carlisle line, with a branch to Windermere, and nearby Tebay branches back to Ingleton, via the Low Gill Viaduct, and Carnforth branches to Ulverston via the Arnside Viaduct across the top of Morecambe Bay.

Oxenholme will be the feature station, and will be on two ovals, to start. The station itself was on a slight curve, and we’d lean over the bridge there, watching the trains. I often travelled to Carlisle from Oxenholme. There was always a black loco, probably a Black 5, and the coaches were never uniform. Usually a mix of maroon, and cream and maroon coaches. I don’t remember any locos that were coloured anything other than black, so my little shunting engine will get painted black, and I will buy a Black 5 and a Tank engine to join the Standard 4. It was a relief to find that the Standard 4 I bought at a fair recently was actually the last banking engine used at Oxenholme.

I don’t know how important authenticity is to me. The Arnside viaduct looks like it will be crossing Lake Windermere, so I’m not going to get too hung up on geography. Essentially there’ll be some kind of Lake District backdrop on one side, and the Howgills on the other, depending on my painting or montage skills.

I don’t intend to spend any money on buildings or scenery. There’s a lot of paints here already, and I’m hoarding foam polystyrene, cardboard, interesting boxes, aluminium grating, tins, in fact anything likely to get used. I’ve already built a row of railway cottages, a signal box, a shop and Post Office, water tank, fuel tanks etc. Using the paint programme on my pc I’ve designed the buildings, printed them out, and stuck the results to cardboard. Once the new board is up, and the track laid, I’ll progress to wire mesh and papier mache.